The Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U ($2,900 direct) is billed as the follow-up to the VGC-LS25E all-in-one PC, but in reality, it's a different beast. The LT19U is the combination of HDTV, DVD player, and PC that we've been looking for. Through no fault of Sony's, perfection eludes the LT19U. But for someone who wants a PC that blends into the decor of a bedroom, this could be the one.

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The LT19U is a 22-inch LCD widescreen monitor with a PC and a Blu-ray drive built into it. It looks just like those HDTV/DVD combos that you see in the big-box stores, down to the slot-loading Blu-ray drive on the side panel. The system's screen is 1050p (which means it's 480p-, 720p-, and 1080i-capable).You can easily connect the system to a standard VESA mount, so it can hang on a cabinet or on a wall with an articulated mount. The "floating" clear polycarbonate frame and silver bezel around the screen evoke the look of Sony's Bravia HDTV sets, a popular design that goes well in a bedroom. If you use an external antenna to receive TV and HDTV over the air, consider the cheaper ($2,050) VCG-LT18E that Sony has also just launched. It has the same screen, smaller hard drive, and DVD burner, but it also comes with an internal NTSC/ATSC TV tuner that keeps the clutter off of your dresser (more on that later).

The slot-mounted BD-RE (Blu-ray rewritable burner) drive on the side of the system looks just like the DVD drive on HDTV/DVD combo units, and works just as well. Pop a Blu-ray disc in the drive and the movie comes up in about 10 seconds. The included MCE remote looks a little Spartan (better-looking ones are available, from HP, for example). Still, it's fine for navigating menus and playing back your movies. Visuals on the built-in 22-inch widescreen are crisp and "pop" off the screen. Images are so detailed that you can tell if the actor's clothing was machine-made or hand-tailored. Windows Media Center is just as easy to use as it is on other Vista Ultimate and Home Premium systems; however, in my opinion, the Apple TV interface is better. One major complaint from the previous LS series that Sony has addressed in the LT19U is that the IR sensor for the remote is now integrated into the body of the system. Eliminating the USB dongle that detracted from the LS series' clean lines was a needed improvement.

The integrated speakers sound good. If you want "movie" sound, you can hook the systems' digital audio port to a home-theater surround speaker system, but the built-in 2.1 (stereo plus integrated subwoofer) sound is good enough for day-to-day viewing and music listening. The system is quiet, thanks to its use of some laptop-grade components, including the Core 2 Duo T7500 processor and the nVidia GeForce 8400M GT graphics. One notable benefit of the large screen is that the space behind it can hold up to two full-size desktop-class hard drives. You can have up to 1.5TB of drive space by adding a 1TB drive to the existing 500GB, 7,200-rpm drive. The drive bay is easy to get to; you just pop off the back panel. (This contrasts with other all-in-ones, including the Apple iMac and the VAIO LS series, that aren't designed for hard drive upgrades).

As a PC, the system is fine both at the 2-foot range (on a desk) and when you're using it from 10 feet away (from the bed or couch) to surf the Internet. It has the same wireless keyboard and mouse as the LS series. The combination isn't bad, but it's rapidly being eclipsed by offerings from Logitech and Microsoft. The Microsoft Wireless Desktop 8000, for example, is rechargeable, and it has a backlit keyboard with MCE controls as well as an integrated touchpad mouse (great for bedroom surfing)and the mouse has a Back button, which is notably lacking on the Sony mouse. Admittedly, the missing Back button is a relatively minor complaint, but it's made more annoying by the LT19U's $2,900 price tag.

Sony has loaded a whole bunch of extra software on the LT19U, including software to manage Sony's LocationFree base station (a competitor to the Slingbox), a bunch of VAIO utilities, offers from AOL, and 60-day trials of Microsoft Office and Norton 360. While these could be helpful to some users, I wish Sony had included an option to keep them from loading so they wouldn't clutter up the desktop, the Start menu, and even Internet Explorer. Not only do you see the usual sony.aol.com home page when you start up IE, you also get a page that advertises the Adobe store (which pushes upgrades to Photoshop and other Adobe products), the Sony store (which links to the same Adobe page and pushes upgrades to the Norton 360 trial), and other utilities that have partnerships with Sony. This page comes up every time you start IE, unless you're savvy enough to change your home page settings (easy enough to do, but maybe beyond the skills of novice users who treat their PCs like appliances).

My major complaint with the system actually isn't Sony's fault: the ATI Digital Cable Tuner (aka the OCUR CableCard tuner). Since CableCard tuners are a nascent technology, just about the entire industry (except Niveus, which worked with ATI for an exclusive) uses the same design for the external tuner: a large black box with a CableCard slot and a USB connector. Perhaps most folks won't mind having ugly cable box next to their sleek HDTV, but it irks those of us who have seen integrated CableCard slots on midrange and high-end HDTV sets. Again, it's not the fault of Sony, but I hope the next version of the VAIO all-in-one has the integrated CableCard slot, at least in the high-end model.

The system's T7500 processor is a good notebook-class dual-core CPU, with the legs to take care of multimedia tasks with ease. On the Photoshop test, the LT19U posted 59 seconds, very good for a dual-core system. Similarly, its time of 1:27 (min:sec) on the Windows Media Encoder test shows that it's capable of doing the tasks a TV recording system needs. (Quad-core systems run under 1:00, but 1:20 is considered excellent for a dual-core system.)

Compared with its most prominent competitor, the Apple iMac, the LT19U comes across as more of a bedroom PC, whereas the iMac really wants to be in the den. Like the HP TouchSmart IQ770PC, the LT19U can also find a place in the kitchen (in fact, it will work even better in the kitchen than the TouchSmart, which can't be wall-mounted). Still, the HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC is a more innovative PC; it retains the Windows Media Center all-in-one title, but this was a hard call. The drawbacks listed above (external tuner and obnoxious bloatware) were the deciding factors.

If you're looking for a TV that's also a PC, you want the Sony VAIO LT19U (or its over-the-air ATSC cousin, the LT18E). The unit looks like an HDTV yet does all the things you'd expect from a modern Windows Vista PC. Since it occupies a different niche, the LT19U is not an iMac killer. But if you crave cool design and need a PC/HDTV for your bedroom, give this system a hard look.

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Joel Santo Domingo is the Lead Analyst for the Desktops team at PC Magazine Labs. He joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology...
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